Jacobs, Caspar (2023) Comparativist Theories or Conspiracy Theories: the No Miracles Argument Against Comparativism. [Preprint]

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Abstract

Although physical theories routinely posit absolute quantities, such as absolute position or intrinsic mass, it seems that only comparative quantities such as distance and mass ratio are observable. But even if there are in fact only distances and mass ratios, the success of absolutist theories means that the world looks just as if there are absolute positions and intrinsic masses. If comparativism is nevertheless true, there is a sense in which it is a cosmic conspiracy that the world looks just as if there are absolute quantities: the comparative quantities satisfy certain relations that only absolutism can explain. I show that such cosmic conspiracies are a pervasive feature of comparativist theories. The argument is structurally similar to the well-known No Miracles Argument for scientific realism. Just as anti-realism cannot explain the empirical adequacy of our theories in general, so comparativism cannot explain the empirical adequacy of absolutist theories in particular.

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Item Type:	Preprint
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID Jacobs, Caspar caspar.jacobs@philosophy.ox.ac.uk
Keywords:	comparativism, absolutism, quantities, symmetries, common ground, no miracles argument, cosmic coincidences
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Depositing User:	Caspar Jacobs
Date Deposited:	29 Mar 2023 18:19
Last Modified:	29 Mar 2023 18:19
Item ID:	21948
Subjects:	General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics Specific Sciences > Physics > Classical Physics Specific Sciences > Physics > Symmetries/Invariances
Date:	March 2023
URI:	https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/21948

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